Yes, I have often proved the opposite to be true... by messing around with friends such as Dr. Love Bastard and Beverage Boy. But I do believe that men and women can be friends.

Case in point: He's Like a Brother To Me- who I've been friends with for 10 years now. He loves me warts, quirks & all, laughs at my idiosyncrasies and never treats me like a "girl" when we're hanging with his boys (though he always opens the door). He's not afraid to show me his sensitive side. I know what you may be thinking. And, no he's not gay (I already have a gay husband - hey cutie - ala Will & Grace).

He has many of the qualities that I look for in a beau:

He's cute - this one chick he went to college with recently told him that back in the day they thought he was a model - a fact that is now the punchline to all of my jokes.

He's smart - he runs his own company.

He's funny - he always knows how to make me laugh. Like when he pointed out all the women at Apres Diemwho were giving him dirty looks because they must have thought that I was bawling because he was breaking up with me, when really he was comforting me after my dad passed away.

So why haven't I dated him or at least tasted the goods?

This is a question which surely crossed his parents' mind the Thanksgiving when all of the friends went to their house for dinner and he decided that this would be a great time to give me another driving lesson. We left with laughter... we came back in a screaming match (he almost got me killed, though he will claim that I almost got him killed). The fight was so intense that he parents thought that I was the reason why he had recently broken up with his H.S./College sweetheart. Surely, only two people who were fooling around could argue so intensely... but that was just not the case.

So why haven't I dated him? Well the name should say it all: He's Like a Brother To Me. And "He's like a brother to me" is often what my response when asked the question: "So why don't you two date?" And this is one friendship that I don't want to get all sticky with emotional entaglements and bodily fluid - lol.